Meet Contessa: My first love is food. Food and linens go together. The tablecloth is the cake and the food is the icing on the cake. I have won numerous recipe contests, even appearing on Channel 12 with Chef Jim Coleman for my Pennsylvania Dutch recipe "Roasted potato filling balls". I have Amish roots from my mother's side of the family and my father was Italian. I tell everyone I come from the best of both worlds ...

My Amish Nanny Elizabeth was the best at everything she did: cooking, making quilts, and making tablecloths. My mother was also the best at everything she did. So you see, I inherited a lot of these talents from the talented women in my family.

I love to entertain, and when friends would come to my house, everyone wanted to know where my linens came from. To me the best linens are French Jacquards. If I wanted to change the mood in a room, it was always a French linen to the rescue. And where in America can a consumer find decent table linens and the big linens for the big dining room tables? I will not sell anything that is from where women and children are oppressed. The only products that I sell are from America, Sweden, Belgium, Morocco, and France.

I knew I had to create a linen company and import linens from France. In my quest to find a suitable location for my French shop, there was only one place I wanted, and that was the historical Reading Terminal Market. I knew when I walked into the market that I belonged there. It's the greatest food market on the East Coast, and what better place to sell French linens!! Remember food and linens go together!